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If this is your first visit, welcome to my blog of memories and observations. If you wish to be notified of new posts, enter an e-mail address above, and click on "Submit." As we move through a seventh year of this venture, I thank all who have made regular visits, as well as fellow bloggers who have found Stomp Off worth linking to. Doing this sort of thing is time-consuming, but I try to post fresh material at least once a week—let me know what you think. There is a Commentary option at the end of each post and a Guest Book can be reached by scrolling down and clicking on the quill image. I welcome your observations, reaction and/or suggestions in either spot—or both. As for blog content, the most current posts are on the home page, starting at the top. Earlier items are listed by month, year and title in the archive index. To zero in on a particular key word or subject, use the search option that is located directly beneath the blog's masthead. Most images can be enlarged with a mouse click, and there are links to some of my favorite blogs, etc.Since visitors have come from 150 countries, a translator with numerous languages is located below. You can at any time revert to English with a click at the top left of this page:

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9/19/10

This relates to a previous post wherein I include a segment from my Bessie Smith biography that describes a party that Bessie and Ruby attended at Car Van Vechten's midtown apartment. You can read that post here: Ruby and Bessie Meet Carlo, so I won't repeat that, but here is that party described by Ruby in the series of interviews I did for the book, forty years ago. It is one of four recollections that I studied and from which I pieced together my own account of that festive, surprise-filled April evening in 1928.

Before you listen to Ruby's account, read Van Vechten's own description of Bessie's appearance, which is taken from a 1947 issue of Jazz Record magazine and, understandably, leaves out a few details:

George Gershwin was there and Marguerite d’Alvarez and Constance Collier, possibly Adele Astaire. The drawing room was well filled with sophisticated listeners. Before she could sing, Bessie wanted a drink. She asked for a glass of straight gin, and with one gulp she downed a glass holding nearly a pint. Then, with a burning cigarette depending from one corner of her mouth, she got down to the blues, really down to ‘em, with Porter at the piano. I am quite certain that anybody who was present that night will never forget it. This was no actress, no imitator of a woman’s woes; there was no pretense. It was the real thing—a woman cutting her heart open with a knife until it was exposed for us all to see, so that we suffered as she suffered, exposed with a rhythmic ferocity, indeed, which could hardly be borne. In my own experience, this was Bessie Smith’s greatest performance.

Porter Grainger

You will hear Ruby mention Porter Grainger several times. He was Bessie's pianist and musical director at that time and he was anxious to get in with the Van Vechten crowd, so Bessie made her appearance as a favor to Porter, who she had regarded with more than professional interest. Mr. Grainger was flexible, but he did have his preferences. I should point out that Ruby had never met Carl Van Vechten, but when I mentioned his name, it triggered her memory of the party. In her mind, the event had taken place at one of the posh midtown hotels—"the Waldorf or the Astor"—because Ruby had never seen a private home so luxuriously appointed. This was also the first time she saw a white maid, it shocked her.Here's how Ruby remembered the Van Vechten party.

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Followers

FROM ALBERTA HUNTER'S SCRAPBOOK...

My good friend, Alberta Hunter enjoyed a very long career during which she toured extensively on her own and, during WWII and the Korean Conflict, as they called it. Her overseas travels began in 1925, when she bought a ticket to France, and continued until her death, in 1984. She loved to keep mementos, some of which you will see here.
If you run your cursor over the bottom right of the picture area, you will see a control panel that allows you to stop and examine an image or move in either direction.
If you move your cursor over the picture, you will see controls that allow you to pause and take a better look.

Who I am ...

Some of my great grandfather's sketches

My great grandfather, Carl August Broberg, was a Copenhagen coffee importer with a passion for all things maritime. He was constantly sketching (mostly ships) on any piece of paper he could find. I have hundreds of his wonderful drawings, dating as far back as the 1860s. Many of them are rendered on the backs of waybills, calling cards, memos, etc. Here is a small sample.

Slideshow Gallery

When you write about the music, record companies do their best to grow your record collection, but they also love to send out press releases and those 8 x 10 glossies. I eventually threw out my stacks of press releases, but I kept the photos and added a few of my own blurry pre-digital images.

Remembering Bessie Smith

It was a chance hearing of a Bessie Smith recording, played on the Danish Radio's weekly "Jazz Club" program (it's theme was Jelly Roll Morton's "Oh, Didn't He Ramble") that brought my attention to jazz and blues. My mother thought I had become obsessed with it, and she was right, but her now 60-year-old prediction that I would "grow out of it" did not come true—obviously. So, since Bessie opened the door and totally changed the direction of my life, I think it is only fitting that I maintain this little tribute on my blog. Images will change from time to time, but this is Bessie's spot.

A big Thank You to John Francis for some of the rarest of these images.